Sometimes characters become friends, albeit transient, for in the moment of their first inception there is already loss. And so it was for two women whose lives I was able to share for few hundred pages: the housekeeper-cum-caretaker Elizabeth McKenna of Shaffer’s The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society and the Parisian concierge Renée of Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog, who behind her troll-like, peasant façade harbored a deeply sophisticated intellect, the reflective consciousness of Kant, the wabi of Japanese culture and the Tolstoy’s understanding that tout vient à son heure pour qui sait attendre (but everything comes at its appointed time). McKenna comes to life through a series of correspondences between a British academic writer who had found success in a biography of Charles Lamb and was now searching for new literary fodder amongst a coterie of Guernsey Islanders, who, through an imaginative deception so as to avoid a Nazi curfew, serendipitously create an island book club. Of course, the relationships mirror their personalities, foibles and idiosyncrasies, as this disparate group of local characters under the literary and spiritual auspices of McKenna, who herself had been island trapped under the occupation, take that proverbial literary voyage of self-discovery that allows them to endure, understand and create “human collaboration.” As for Renée, her character is revealed through journal entries paralleled with those of the precocious 13 year old Paloma, one of tenants of the maison particulière whose inhabitants serve as origination points for the protagonist’s keen observations on life. Having walked past “Renée” many times, I now wonder what I never saw. And that is part of Barbery’s point, for how often does one only see the surface; yet, the obverse is how much easier is one’s existence when we keep up the mask. Through settings not too remotely removed by time and place, both authors evoke gentle connections to the human predicament that leave the reader with much to reflect.
In a different key…
Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo. Working out your own salvation with diligence and discovering the nonthinking mind were not concepts that stolid, upper middle class Otto Ringling had pondered. But through an accidental (no better word to describe it) road trip to North Dakota, the perfect representative of a the successful American with an authentic family of two squabbling adolescents and a supportive wife, adequate job, home and health plan, finds himself and all his surety challenged. Anyone who has made a long distance road trip will identify with the frustrations of a pre GPS and Apple APS adventure. Ringling’s travel buddy, the Buddhist monk Rinpoche, says little, but speaks volumes in his silence; thus allowing Ringling’s world- and the reader’s, to expand beyond the ordinary mind. Of note: having driven much of his route myself- and spent a weekend at the General Sutter Inn- made for an even more engaging read, as well as reaffirmed the wisdom of Ripoche.
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summer reading thoughts…
Sometimes characters become friends, albeit transient, for in the moment of their first inception there is already loss. And so it was for two women whose lives I was able to share for few hundred pages: the housekeeper-cum-caretaker Elizabeth McKenna of Shaffer’s The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society and the Parisian concierge Renée of Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog, who behind her troll-like, peasant façade harbored a deeply sophisticated intellect, the reflective consciousness of Kant, the wabi of Japanese culture and the Tolstoy’s understanding that tout vient à son heure pour qui sait attendre (but everything comes at its appointed time). McKenna comes to life through a series of correspondences between a British academic writer who had found success in a biography of Charles Lamb and was now searching for new literary fodder amongst a coterie of Guernsey Islanders, who, through an imaginative deception so as to avoid a Nazi curfew, serendipitously create an island book club. Of course, the relationships mirror their personalities, foibles and idiosyncrasies, as this disparate group of local characters under the literary and spiritual auspices of McKenna, who herself had been island trapped under the occupation, take that proverbial literary voyage of self-discovery that allows them to endure, understand and create “human collaboration.” As for Renée, her character is revealed through journal entries paralleled with those of the precocious 13 year old Paloma, one of tenants of the maison particulière whose inhabitants serve as origination points for the protagonist’s keen observations on life. Having walked past “Renée” many times, I now wonder what I never saw. And that is part of Barbery’s point, for how often does one only see the surface; yet, the obverse is how much easier is one’s existence when we keep up the mask. Through settings not too remotely removed by time and place, both authors evoke gentle connections to the human predicament that leave the reader with much to reflect.
In a different key…
Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo. Working out your own salvation with diligence and discovering the nonthinking mind were not concepts that stolid, upper middle class Otto Ringling had pondered. But through an accidental (no better word to describe it) road trip to North Dakota, the perfect representative of a the successful American with an authentic family of two squabbling adolescents and a supportive wife, adequate job, home and health plan, finds himself and all his surety challenged. Anyone who has made a long distance road trip will identify with the frustrations of a pre GPS and Apple APS adventure. Ringling’s travel buddy, the Buddhist monk Rinpoche, says little, but speaks volumes in his silence; thus allowing Ringling’s world- and the reader’s, to expand beyond the ordinary mind. Of note: having driven much of his route myself- and spent a weekend at the General Sutter Inn- made for an even more engaging read, as well as reaffirmed the wisdom of Ripoche.
When shall we meet to discuss summer books read?
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